The 1930s setting and Jackson's white suit and fedora pay tribute to the Fred Astaire musical comedy film The Band Wagon.

[10] The original mix of the song includes the sound of Jackson's fast-thumping heart and heavy breathing, which travel from left to right thanks to Hugo Zuccarelli's Holophonics system.

[12] The song reached number one in Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands and Spain and the top 10 in Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and the UK.

[citation needed] The video and Jackson's white suit and fedora pay tribute to the Fred Astaire musical comedy film The Band Wagon, particularly the "Girl Hunt Ballet" (itself inspired by the novels of Mickey Spillane) scene.

[14] The video, directed by Colin Chilvers, was shot between mid-February and April 1987 at Culver City, California, and in the backlot at Universal Studios Hollywood[15][16] and premiered internationally on MTV on the night of October 13, 1988.

[18][19] In October 1993, Jackson's team patented a method of performing the lean in concert using specially designed shoes that hook into pegs that rise from the stage.

[21] In 2019, American television personality Kim Kardashian bought Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" fedora, which still had his makeup on it, for her daughter North West.

"[25] Jason Elias of AllMusic wrote that "Smooth Criminal" was "a gorgeous and exhilarating record ... [it] presents Michael Jackson at his most captivating and it never fails to impress".

[26] Rolling Stone named it the sixth best Jackson song, writing that it was "his best blend of R&B groove and rock edginess, and a turning point in his shift toward darker, harder-edged material.

"[27] In a retrospective review of Bad, Newsweek wrote: "[Smooth Criminal] is a sleek, exhilarating action sequence of a song that's unlike anything else in Jackson's catalog ... an urgent and inspired highlight.

In May 2001, the American rock band Alien Ant Farm released a cover of "Smooth Criminal" as the second single from their second studio album, Anthology (2001).

Alien Ant Farm's 1999 album Greatest Hits includes a hidden track named "Slick Thief", which is an early version of "Smooth Criminal".

At his request, they reshot some scenes to remove a child wearing a surgical mask, a reference to how Jackson wore them in public to cover cosmetic surgeries.

[151] Jean Rodríguez sang lead vocals for Tony Succar's Latin-flavored version of "Smooth Criminal", from the album Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson (2015), including a section in Spanish.